Reginald Arsenault. James Bradley. Nancy Bessey. Maxine Collins. Rep. Margaret Craven. Rep. Patrick Flood. Kathryn Grefer-Kirkland. Lance Harvell. Teresea Hayes. Rep. Randy Hotham. Priscilla Jenkins. Gary Knight. Marjorie Medd. Rep. Janet Mills. Sen. John Nutting. Kerri Prescott. Rep. Bruce Hanley. Sheila Rollins. Mark Samson. Rep. Thomas Saviello. Jane Scease. Rep. Deborah Simpson. Rep. Nancy Smith. Paula Smith. Rep. Richard Sykes. Rep. Michael Vaughn. Rep. William Walcott.

These 27 people, all candidates for state office, returned questionnaires sent by this newspaper seeking their thoughts on topics like the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, Dirigo Health, and the impact of societal issues like abortion and anti-discrimination on the election. (We also tossed out, “Why are you running?”and “What is your top priority?”)

While we appreciate their response to our queries, we’re puzzled why this group failed to answer Project Vote Smart, a nonpartisan political organization, when it asked just one in its National Political Awareness Test: “Are you willing to tell citizens your positions on the issues you will most likely face on their behalf?”

Project Vote Smart bills its test as a measure of integrity, and a way of clearing campaign rhetoric to have candidates focus squarely on issues.

Statewide, a mere 37.6 percent of state candidates (136 of 364) answered Project Vote Smart and its accompanying survey. Three of five gubernatorial candidates (Gov. John Baldacci, Pat LaMarche and Philip NaPier yes, Sen. Chandler Woodcock and Rep. Barbara Merrill no) and all federal candidates except for Rep. Darlene Curley responded to the project’s request for answers.

Even more surprising are the accolades heaped by Project Vote Smart on the return rate by Maine candidates. “Maine Candidates Refuse to Succumb to National Trends” was the cheery superlative used by the project in releasing its results on Monday. It’s hard to believe other states were worse.

Vote Smart said the return rate has plummeted nationally since 2000. Maine peaked that year, it said, with a 57 percent return rate from state candidates. It cites campaign pressure as the reason; giving definitive answers hurts the candidate’s ability to “control their message” and exposes them to “opposition research.”

Lawyers use similar reasoning to have clients avoid police interrogations. Voters should expect, and get, more forthrightness from political candidates.

Adelaide Kimball, a Vote Smart spokeswoman, said in releasing Maine’s data that candidates who failed to respond have “lost sight of who their prospective employers are.” Kimball is right – candidates should embrace efforts to reach voters directly, without an interlocutor, which is what the NPAT offered.

While our questionnaire answers will be published later, Vote Smart’s data is available today on vote-smart.org, including biographical and contact information for all candidates. The ability to take the NPAT was available online. It couldn’t have been made any easier.

One question remains: why didn’t these candidates answer the survey?